Everything That Rises, Must Always Crumble
by kris x emergency
Summary: Glimpses into the falling out of Hermione Granger and Tom Riddle. He loved power. He was overwhelmed; he never realized that to truly live, he'd need her. Life quickly became broken. Chapters aren't in order
1. Chapter 1

**Well, This two chapter story is based on something that  
happened in my life and the only way for me to release  
the stupid pain is to write about it.  
So.. **

Her heart felt like it was about to break. She could never convey the hurt she felt to anyone. It was just one of those emotions that you'd have to feel to understand... You couldn't sympathize with a person any other way. The past few days had been living hell for her. Sure, she was a strong person. She'd been made fun of for being a muggle-born by Malfoy, ignored by Ron, treated as a go-between by Harry, and many other things by countless others. She'd put up with all of this, along with trying to defeat Voldemort for the past 6 bloody years, and being one of the smartest witches of her age. She'd been through things other people couldn't even dream of. She held on because she knew that in the end, everything would be alright. She wouldn't have been given the life she was leading if someone out there didn't think she could handle it... And besides, everyone knew Hermione Granger never gave up. But this was just one thing too much. She couldn't handle it anymore.  
It happened overnight. He just stopped talking to her.

"What did I do?" she was standing heartbroken in front of the one man she never thought she'd stand in front of begging for an answer to a question she never thought she'd ask. It wasn't directly official that he was ignoring her but it was silently stated. Every time she asked him a question or made a small comment that would have made him laugh just weeks earlier, he answered her with a one word statement or just a silent nod of his head. At first, she thought that maybe he was just brooding over something that had happened earlier that day and didn't want to talk about it. It was normal for him to do that. He wasn't exactly the most social and inviting person, but he was always polite.. but during lunch when she went to go sit at the Slytherin table with him and his... 'friends', if you will, she noticed that he was perfectly fine with them. Just not with her.  
"You won't talk to me, you act like I don't exist, and when you do acknowledge my presence, you act like I'm wasting your time." Tom Riddle just looked at Hermione with a cold, calculating stare. How was it that she had come to not only befriend this man, but possibly.. love him? She stared back, trying to figure out his secrets.

"Why are you mad at me?"

"I'm not mad at you."

"You sure as hell are acting like it!"

"Listen, Granger-" She stopped breathing for a second, he hadn't called her that since she showed up four months ago, back in January before he knew her. "If you're talking about Potions class with Slughorn the other day.. I was going to sit by you, but I thought someone else was going to sit there. So I went to an empty seat." How was he lying like that to her face? It's not like she couldn't tell. It's not like she didn't know. She was there when he walked into the damn classroom. She made sure no one sat in the seat next to her. She saw him walk in and look at her seat and then her, and then the seat again, and sat down in a chair at the front of the room. Then when class was over, he left the class without saying a word to her and just walking off instead of waiting and going to lunch with her like he had done since they started talking.

"I'm not talking about the damn class, Tom! I don't care where you sit," which was an obvious lie, but she didn't feel like correcting herself. "You've been ignoring me like a bloody plague!" He narrowed his eyes at her. Her voice was cracking now. She had no idea what she did wrong. "I haven't said or done anything to you since Monday when I wrote you that damn note about that poetry book you were asking about! And in my opinion, that note was actually somewhat funny! The last thing I said to you was that I would talk to you tomorrow. That was the very last thing I said. And then I see you on Tuesday and your demeanor towards me is completely different. Your stance, the way your voice sounded, the way you looked at me. Everything." His eyes seemed to get colder and he stood up straighter.

"Just.. tell me what I did." He didn't respond, he just continued to stare. Hermione didn't want to show him the effect he had on her. It made her feel pathetic... especially when it didn't affect him in the slightest. She broke through his exterior and became his friend, and then broke through even farther to something she didn't quite understand. She knew he was capable of emotions despite what everything she had ever heard and been taught about the cruel, heartless animal Tom Riddle became. She knew he could feel and that he hurt and she knew that she could make him laugh the most amazing laugh she had ever heard and tell some of the most interesting stories she would ever have the honor of hearing. What she didn't know is how in just one night, everything could change. Tears were forming in her eyes. He turned around and walked over to a window and leaned back against it staring over her shoulder. "J-just tell me what I did to you to make you do this." His hair was falling over his eyes and it just made her heart hurt even more.  
T  
om Riddle was beautiful. There was no other word for it. He wouldn't answer her. He didn't care and the look in his eyes proved it. "I don't kno-" She stopped talking. She couldn't even make it through the sentence. He looked away from her over at some first years that were playing with cards in the hall. She thought she could handle this, but she was so completely wrong. She couldn't handle the person she thought she could trust turning his back on her when she needed him. This thought made Hermione Granger break down in the worst possible way in front of the one man she knew she needed to keep her distance from at the very beginning. She shouldn't be sobbing in front of Tom Riddle, a man who didn't even care about her existence. "Why are you doing this to me, Tom?! WHY ARE YOU HURTING ME!?" He continued to look away. Hermione felt her legs starting to turn to jelly. "...You don't even care." She put her arms around herself and ran in the opposite direction towards someone, anyone, who would just hold her and tell her it would be alright.

She ended up running into Ashley Lora, one of Tom's many cult girls as she flew away from him. "Tom, what's wrong with your little mudblood?" She heard her ask him. "Oh, she's just mad because she was talking to me and I wouldn't answer her. She just started crying and ran away." Ashley laughed and said something about stupid little Gryffindors. Tom directed his attention to Ashley, quickly forgetting the girl he had recently come to like as more than a friend. Hermione eventually ran into Marie Ripple, her boyfriend Zane Ryam, Louise Bittle, and Choice Rogers. They all stared at her as she ran into their circle crying. Zane was the only one who knew what was going on with Hermione because she had asked him for advice a couple days earlier when Tom had started ignoring her and she had been keeping him updated. Hermione finally felt that she couldn't support her own body weight and fell to the floor sobbing. Louise held Hermione as Zane uttered a few explicatives about Tom and how she didn't deserve this and not to worry because he'd take care of him.

She continued to cry not caring who saw her. This pain was just too much. She didn't know what to do. Tom had just made it blatantly obvious that he didn't want anything to do with her and there was nothing she could do about it. Hermione felt someone standing behind her when there hadn't been anyone there just minutes earlier. She turned around and saw Leslie Kyle staring down at her smirking.

Leslie was an old friend of Tom's though they stopped talking when Hermione showed up, for Leslie didn't like the fact that Hermione took her place and more with Tom. She felt that, in looks, she was everything Hermione wasn't. Beautiful with short blonde hair and skinnier that Hermione could ever be without looking like death formed over. Leslie had just asked Peter, a friend of Zane's who had shown up minutes earlier, what was going on. Peter looked at Hermione's body and then told Leslie. She laughed. Hermione stood up and turned around to face Leslie. It was pretty obvious that this move scared Leslie because she backed up. "What-" Hermione started in a low hiss. "Did I ever do to you? Nothing. That's the answer. And if you were in my position and I yours, I would not be standing behind you laughing and smirking." Leslie's eyes widened as Hermione's fist collided with her face. Leslie fell back on the floor with a bleeding nose. "You're going to regret that, Granger." She growled as she put a hand to her nose. "No. I don't think I will," and Hermione started walking to her next class, tears silently forming again while the group she left behind stared after her.  
"Well, one thing's for certain," Marie started to say. "Hermione Granger has definitely got balls."

**Review, please? **


	2. Chapter 2

**This story probably won't have a happy ending.  
I'm sorry, but I just need to get this out of my system. **

He knew as much about me as I would ever tell anyone. Hell, I'd probably tell him more.  
I trusted him more than people I had known since Kindergarten and I'd only known him for about two years. Actually, less than that.  
There had been many guys in my life that I felt I had truly loved. I was so convinced that I needed them and we were meant together but after each one left me broken hearted and in a sense, crying in a corner, I realized that I was so incredibly wrong. I'd always been more understanding and thoughtful than most of my other friends. I knew what had to happen and how to get there. I'd had one boyfriend my entire life and yet, everyone came to me for advice on basically everything. I could always help everyone except myself.  
You could say it was a weakness.

There was always something so incredibly entrancing about him. I can't even say name right now because it hurts so much and to me, it will just linger in the silent air encircling me. I'll get lost in the thoughts that I'm trying to keep locked up behind the brick wall in my mind.

He wasn't always who he is now. At least, that's what our friends say. Our. Between me and him, that word no longer exists. He used to be shy and thoughtful. He used to care about other people. I mean, he was never the way I am with people. Fuck, he was never the way I am. He's quiet and only talks when he has something important to add to a conversation or he's directly spoken to. Something changed after I met him at the beginning of this semester. I met him right before everything happened and in a way, I guess I'm grateful, but at the same time, it's torture for me. It's like.. I know the old him is inside of him hidden away behind the cold interior's exterior.

I wish he would have let me in farther.  
Maybe then I could have realized what was going on before it was too late.  
I should have known and expected what happened. I should have known. But right now, that's not the point.  
Actually, I don't even know what the point is. He used to make me so happy and I know I made him happy. It was never the way I wanted too. I wanted to take his pain away but I think only he can do that. I hate that. I hate not being able to help him. He called me a drama queen the other day. I'm guessing that's because I screamed, begged, pleaded, cried, wailed, everything that's possibly pathetic, for him to not hurt me. To not erase me from his life.  
He was the first guy that I ever truly needed. I can't go a single day without thinking about him for more than an hour altogether. Hell, that's a lie. I can't go for more than 8 hours altogether without thinking about him.

I loved him. It's as simple as that and despite what I say about love being non-existant, I don't think I've ever been broken as bad before. I can handle a lot. But I can't handle… I don't even know. I miss him more than anything and I just.. I want him to hold me and tell me that everything will eventually be better.  
But that can't happen when I'm dead to him.


	3. Chapter 3

She knew who he was before he had even turned around. He was the reason she had left the only things she had ever known two days ago. He was the reason she left everything she cared about. She knew this suicide mission was worth it, but God, was it _worth _it? He was yelling at some first year Ravenclaws to get to class and she smelled him before she was within ten feet of his person. He smelled like mint chocolate chips and oranges and despite the way it sounded in her head, it was the most amazing aroma that had ever hit her nose. That was something she wasn't expecting in the slightest.

He looked somewhat like Draco Malfoy from the back except, Tom Riddle had brown hair that looked even softer than Malfoy could have ever accomplished. It was hard to look at him knowing that this lean, muscular sixteen year old boy in front of her would eventually become the snake-like looking… killer that was trying to murder Harry in about fifty years. If she hadn't know what he would become or what he already was because of everything he had already done, she might have even- no. She could admit it now. Tom Riddle was beautiful beyond imagination.

Hermione had been staring at him for the past two minutes without knowing what she was doing. "Can I… erm.. help you?" His voice sounded silky, but deep at the same time. He'd probably make a wonderful singer. "You're in Gryffindor I'm assuming, otherwise you wouldn't be staring so rudely." That broke her out of her trance. "What? Oh. No. I'm just walking going to see Professor Dumbledore." She said to Tom curtly. It was none of his business as to what she was doing. Tom stared down at her narrowing his eyes for absolutely no reason except for the fact that it was bugging the bloody hell out of him because he had never seen her before. Tom cocked an eyebrow. "Who _are_ you?" He said bluntly. "Hermione Granger, and if you don't mind, I really should be going to see Professor Dumbledore." She stated briskly and walked straight past him.

_I'm supposed to spend the next two years with him?  
God._

**As stated before, these are just random excerpts out of Hermione and Tom's lives.  
There's no real order. Eventually, you'll be able to figure it out but I'm just posting them as I want to.**

****

No, this isn't the greatest story with the best words but this is more of an outlet than anything else.

**Review if you'd like. **


	4. Chapter 4

I was making progress.

Then I relapsed. Do you remember that shirt that I loved on you? The blue one with the pocket on the chest? I told you how much I cared about you every time you wore it. You began to wear it twice a week eventually, just to please me. You always walked straight up to me and asked me if I liked your shirt – I did, of course.

Well, I bought that shirt. The exact shirt. The one you used to wear. I found it at the bottom of some bin in the back of some thrift store in Knockturn Alley. I'm not sure how it wound up there, but it had. You're probably wondering how I knew it was yours. Hell, you're probably not. You were there the day it came off and it got a tear in the corner that looked like a lion. Of course you remember. How could you not?

As always, the war against you is raging on. More and more of our people are dying against you everyday and you're sitting in some abandoned house staring at the wall, speaking to Nagini. Dumbledore spoke to me earlier today ; he asked me to try to talk to you. He told me that I was their last hope, maybe I could say something to change your mind. I highly doubt that. You're the one who left me, remember?

Fuck you Riddle.

I told him I would.  
I need you to end my curiosity. I want to know why you left me – none of this 'It's not you, it's me, I just don't need you anymore' shit. Why you truly felt the need to leave me to fend for myself.  
I'm counting down the days until I see you again. Until I walk down that hill alone to face you. 11 days as of right now.

I still love you, Tom. I still need you.  
I'm wearing the shirt.  
You always looked the best in it.


End file.
